Genombasierte Suche nach Protease-Inhibitoren aus bakteriellen Quellen

Abstract

Bacteria are a rich source for small-molecule inhibitors of proteases and protease-like enzymes with various therapeutic applications. These molecules often comprise distinct structural moieties, so called warheads which mediate specific interactions with the target enzymes. Knowledge on the biosynthesis of the protease inhibitors warheads can be used to search for orphan pathways with similar capacities in bacterial genomes. The identified biosynthetic gene clusters likely encode the production of new protease inhibitors with the same mode of action as the template compound.